Mr Hunt's legal team had accepted that provisions of the 2008 Act were incompatible with human rights covering respect for family life and discrimination.

Barrister Samantha Broadfoot, who represented Mr Hunt, told Sir James: "It is accepted that there is a difference in treatment between a single person entering into a lawful surrogacy arrangement and a couple entering the same arrangement."

But she said adoption was an "available solution".

Sir James said the child at the centre of the case had been made a ward of court and placed in the care of his father at an earlier stage of litigation - in order to secure his legal "position".

He gave the man permission to make further applications relating to parental status.